Am I completely crazy or AIBU getting rid of Alexa?

[Konicek007]

Hello, call me paranoid but..would like some opinions.
We have Alexa Echo dot in the living room, purely because of the music, we not use it for anything else. We love it playing music through it. Hi
Yesterday me and my daughter ( 8 yrs) were having a conversation , her telling me about her horse toy she not longer wants, saying something in lines she doesn’t want to play with it anymore as she is too big now, to get rid of it etc..
Suddenly Alexa buttered in saying something like You are being warn and reported etc. We haven’t heard the message clear as we also had a music playing from radio.
None of us used the woke up word Alexa for her to respond, plus the music was playing in background but we did heard her saying about warning us..
Now I heard stories about these speakers are actually spying on your home but I never believed it.
My friend husband works for well know computer company as IT developer and he always kept saying to avoid these things in our home.
Now I’m actually paranoid and thinking to get rid of Alexa.
Your opinions please. ( don’t laugh)

I can’t see anything in the activity apart the songs she played.
Must be some glitch.
She woken up in past in the middle of night when nobody was near by, started talking, we heard her from upstairs, that was proper scary too.

I just shut it off at the mains when I have finished using it.

Now I’m actually paranoid and thinking to get rid of Alexa
Your opinions please. ( don’t laugh)

Unless I've missed something having any kind of device in your home is entirely voluntary and your choice, what is making you think that you need the opinons of strangers here?

If you are worried turn off its abilty to listen to your conversations. Details here
www.google.com/amp/s/www.cnet.com/google-amp/news/stop-amazon-employees-from-listening-to-your-alexa-recordings/

it's probably not malicious
Maybe not now but the data exists and whoever owns it can use it for whatever malicious purposes they choose, or they can sell it on to whoever, who might use it for whatever
you might not see it as malicious but do you really trust the big tech companies, all they want to do is increase and consolidate their own power ...you work for them whether you like it or not

Amazon don't need to employ thousands of people to listen or review recordings. They can sample it, they can have robots scanning for conversations they then want to hear again.
It is all possible. Easily.

Surely you've all read 'surveillance capitalism' by Shoshana Zuboff?

Unless I've missed something having any kind of device in your home is entirely voluntary and your choice, what is making you think that you need the opinons of strangers here?

Just wanted an opinions, perhaps someone had the same or knows how these things works..

I notice that the device is referred to as 'she' ....we are encouraged to think of it as a person so that we will trust and confide in it

I just turn mine on when I want music. All settings are stored.

I couldn’t be without my Alexa. How else would I get a never ending supply of 90’s dance music to listen to while cooking?

I've worked in tech for 15 years, and in common with the majority of my colleagues I'm wary about installing IOT devices like Alexa in my home. They tend not to have great security, making them relatively easy to hack, and I assume Amazon/Google et al are mining the data for insights because it would be too tempting not to.

So I totally understand the convenience factor, and that they definitely make life easier, but for me it's not a good tradeoff.

Really no need for the paranoia!! I have Alexa in each room, Siri enabled, a smart tv and Bluetooth in the car.
Us regular folks are nowhere near interesting enough to be constantly monitored unless we have a sideline in terrorism around the school run.
Jeez, technology moves on, voice activation is all about convenience, yes you get adverts for something you've spoken about, I find that amusing rather than alarming, and at times it reminds me of something I'd have forgotten about!
To be truly off grid you'd need to get shut of a lot more than your echo devices!
Chill out 🙄

My youngest DC and I were chatting recently about his Christmas present - a larger toy monkey to the other two little ones he has (he's making a family) - and he said "hopefully I'll get another bigger monkey next Christmas!"

I don't have an Alexa. But my Facebook advertisements were for the exact same toy as I bought from TK Maxx so no Amazon / online purchase, in a much larger size. I figure my iPhone is listening too. And whilst it doesn't fill me with fear I find it irritating that my brain is being manipulated by algorithms and targeted adverts.

I've worked in tech for 15 years
The people on this thread who are in the know appear to be singing from the same hymn sheet

I have a dot and an Echo. It doesn't bother me at all if they are listening. They would be very bored listening to toddler talk and what are we having for tea.

Thanks all. I will be switching it off if not using it.
Btw yes we call to it as her, as my daughter likes calling her ,,her,, .

Wasn't there a thing where Amazon employees & contractees were listening to loads of the recorded data? Former employees don't trust Amazon with personal data so I think it would be foolish to do so. My friend is very involved in the tech industry in Silicon Valley. He has very little tech in the house & sends his dc to a school that doesn't allow computers.

Unless you are the PM why do even care ? Even then it is anonymous anyway. Secondly, yes it listens and then sends voice bites to a centre where workers decipher what it says to improve the voice recognition function. Have a look at the how stuff works podcast for an explanation. There have been murders and drug deals recorded but they are totally anonymous, so there is nothing they can do.

Your naive trusting innocence is so.....touching

Sounds like a glitch, and Alexa accidentally said something she's been programmed to say in a layer roll-out when we are further into dystopia.

I'm less concerned about what they might hear (boring) but data protection. I remember reading that one customers recordings were sent to someone else (lots of personal stuff) & someone's private convos were sent to one of her employees. I don't like them the idea of hearing about health or medical conditions & monitizing it. I believe Apply is better at privacy & has better encryption as their profits aren't driven so much by data collection.

The thing with phones and laptops, though, is that you can change their settings (disable Siri/Cortana/Bixby etc) and refuse permission for apps to use your microphone and camera. If you were to do that with Alexa, there'd be no point in having it at all. I really don't see what it achieves for most able-bodied people as opposed to just pressing a few keys on your phone or computer.

Allowing one of these into your home is potentially opening the floodgates and, as PP have said, making a culture of constant surveillance (aka Big Brother) normal. Our children and their children won't know any different.

If you've nothing to hide then you have nothing to worry about, eh? Your life is too boring for anybody to be interested in?

Have you ever murdered or violently attacked somebody and then spoken about it with others in your own home? Almost certainly not.

Have you ever laughed off having to floor the accelerator to get to an important meeting in time? Have you (half-jokingly) commented about what you'd like to see happen to Donald Trump or Piers Morgan? Have you even just said "I'm going to kill her" as a turn of phrase about somebody who's annoyed you? Has your teenager ever screamed at you that they hate you and that you're abusive because you won't let them stay out after midnight on a school night?

Have you ever expressed gender critical opinions? Potentially 'hate speech', then? Any other opinions which are unPC/unwoke/unfashionable etc.?

Just remember that crime legislation is changing all of the time. It's easy to laugh at ancient laws about being allowed to shoot a Welshman in Chester with a bow and arrow or mince pies being banned, but there are lots of things that didn't used to be illegal and now are - or which are officially 'frowned on' and actual legislation on it might only be a matter of time. Some law changes are very good and progressive; others are little more than a creep towards oppression.

I most definitely would never have an Alexa or similar on my home - at least whilst it's optional. Would they ever make it compulsory to have one? Who knows? You can never be too careful, can you? It's there to protect the whole of society. After all, only those with something to hide have anything to fear.... right....

I don’t care it’s listening. I would actually feel sorry for any employee listening to my vanilla conversations and singing show tunes at the top of my voice and telling the cat to stop being a dick.

They’re listening all the time and selling the information they gather.